Pakistan’s health ministry had on Friday, confirmed a case of mpox virus in a patient who just returned from a Gulf country. At the time of this report, the strain remains unknown.
According to a statement from the health ministry’s spokesperson, the sequencing of the confirmed case was underway, and it is unclear which variant of mpox the patient had until the process was complete.
Why It Matters
A new form of the mpox virus has raised global concern over the fact that it seems to spread more easily though routine close contact.
A case of the new variant that spread outside Africa was confirmed on Thursday in Sweden and it has been linked to a growing outbreak in the continent.
For its part, the World Health Organization has advised against countries placing travel restrictions to stop the spread of mpox, however, the organisation declared the recent outbreak of the disease as a public health emergency of international concern after the new variant of the virus was identified.
On Wednesday, WHO sounded its highest level of alert over the outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo which was quickly spreading to nearby countries.
So far, there have been 27,000 cases and over 1,100 deaths, particularly among children, in Congo since the current outbreak began in January 2023.
The disease, caused by the monkeypox virus, causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions. The symptoms are usually mild but are fatal with children, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems, such as people living with HIV.
What They’re Saying
Pakistan’s health ministry spokesperson, Sajid Shah had revealed that so far they had no confirmation of the new variant, but the sequencing of the sample of the confirmed patient was underway.
“Once that’s done, we will be able to say what strain is this,” he had said.
